James Franco is hitting the ground running in 2011. He just announced that he will be directing adaptations of Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” and Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian.” And he has signed on as the screenplay writer for both projects. He’s getting quite literary on us.

Actor Pete Postlethwaite has died of cancer at age 64. He left an extensive movie career behind him as his legacy. He gave an exceptionally memorable performance as Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects. He most recently appreared in Ben Affleck’s The Town.

In a turn for the weird, William H. Macy has revealed that he used to babysit Joan Cusack, his costar in Shameless. And now they’re going to bump uglies onscreen for the Showtime series. Poor Joan, it’s bad enough that you have a creepy guy hovering over you. But now you have to do it with someone you’re basically related to.

And with the New Year, we bring good news, internet nerds. Mila Kunis, the rugmunching star of Black Swan, has parted ways with Kevin McAllister. Yep, that’s right. Macaulay Culkin and Mila Kunis have ended their relationship and now we can all plan our swoops.

Hey there, boys and girls. It’s that time of the year where we have to step back from the computer and do that all ol’ fashion tradition of spending time with the families. For you baby daddies with different mommas, you have more than one family to be spending time with and it shouldn’t be in front of a computer.

And they’re more than willing to share that fact with you in SNL’s latest digital short with Akon, who is interchangeable with T-Pain it seems. They offer us their enthusiasm over some girls wanting to have sex with them. Those girls just happen to be Jessica Alba and Blake Lively.

A Firefly loyalist recently approached David O. Russell, director of The Fighter, to replace Mark Wahlberg for Nathan Fillion in his upcoming film, Uncharted. I love Firefly as the next guy, but I know that I’m in no position to give advice to a director on decisions that have million-dollar consequences.

Whatever happened to acting like the movie never existed or avoiding the whole issue altogether? Now actors are taking it upon themselves to apologize to their viewers for the unsatisfying movies they ended up being in. M. Night Shyamalan has yet to apologize for his whole career.

Heather Morris might be rumored to play the next Whedon-less Buffy. Morris is known for her role as Brittany on Glee and the white girl “Single Ladies” backup-dancer for Beyonce. While the rumor is still in the air, Morris might not be the perfect girl for the role, but we wouldn’t mind in the slightest.

I always wondered how it felt for someone in Jim Carrey’s position to host a show like Saturday Night Live. He hosted before in 1996, but my inquiry stays the same. What does it feel like for a talented to “In Living Color” alum to host the show of the competition. Granted, it’s more than a decade later, but when we were young, the rivalry felt real.

If there’s one guy who “gets it,” it’s Jay Maynard, also known as Tron Guy. Maynard is the type of guy who watches the original Tron and bases his whole life’s template around the movie. And he still manages to give this movie the fair shake it deserves.

Remember when we talked about the studios fearing that Tron: Legacy might not pull in significant numbers? Well they can now rest easy. The movie made 3.6 million in their midnight showings and are expected to pull in 40 million by the end of the weekend. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, can we please stop talking about how terrible the movie is?

Alfonoso Cuaron’s Gravity is one of those films that always had all of the right ingredients, but they never came together at the same time. It was a constant bane on the project’s development. With this latest piece of news, it looks like the found the final piece of the puzzle. George Clooney is going into space!

Let me be clear. The thought of Morgan Freeman being dead is not funny to me. But the fact that CNN reported on his death and then acted like it never happened is hilarious. The rumor was cleared up by his PR people, but this is one of those stories that anyone can share at a campfire.

…Especially when a part of his personality includes being an alien. Paul, the alien with the voice and gut of Seth Rogen, has graced us with this typography-intensive poster. As much as I enjoy a good typographic moment, the bright yellow on this poster is distracting all the value we can get out of it. But as far as chill aliens go, the hitchhiker, shirtless, flip-flop-wearing type is as chill as …

Diddy threw a party for a recent album release, I believe. But it could’ve easily been mistaken for another one of his name changes. The setting is important because Diddy’s parties is one of the few places where this could have happened. One of the model’s hair caught fire while in a bathtub. Cue laughter.

If the name Tom Shadyac doesn’t ring a bell, it should. He directed some of our favorite Jim Carrey movies in the 90’s as well as one memorable Eddie Murphy movie. You’d think he’d be happy. Instead of reveling in his success, he’s given up all worldly possessions and filmed a socially conscious documentary.

Robert Pattinson, in an effort to shed his sparkly image, has decided to go the weird route for his career. He will play the carnival veterinarian. Also under the big top, we have Reese Witherspoon not playing someone’s girlfriend/wife/love interest. Ok, I take that back. She does play Pattinson’s love interest, but this time, she’s a carnie!

Kansas has got to be the most simplest state ever in the history of film. If it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be so many movies reminding us of that we aren’t in Kansas anymore. When Dorothy spouted these famous lines, a cliche was born. Since then, we’ve been comparing our current surroundings as the opposite of a place we’ve never been to.